Fundraiser story: Rosie

For seven year-old Rosie, watching her sister Katie go through three-and-a-half years of chemotherapy was really tough.

Katie has neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), a disease that affects one in every 3000 children and looks different for each one of them. For some children, the effects are mild. For Katie it meant years of gruelling chemotherapy.

Rosie knew she couldn’t come into our labs and help out the researchers, but still wanted to do something to help her sister and other kids like her. So she came up with a creative way to raise money — she asked people to sponsor her to cut off her hair.

Rosie’s hair was ultimately made into a wig for a child who lost her hair to cancer treatment. For MCRI, Rosie’s efforts raised an amazing $4000. These funds will go to support work on neurofibromatosis being done by Dr Jonathan Payne and his team in the Brain and Mind Research Group at Murdoch Children's.